Friday, February 27, 2009

I am learning so much in the Art Journaling 102 class - I am doing things that I have never attempted before, like image transfers. I had no idea how easy they are to do: the middle page is an ink jet transfer and the bottom is a laser copier transfer. I am using Omni Gel as I purchased a bottle a couple of years ago when I took a BPS class with Carol Wingert. We did one image transfer and it didn't come out very well so I never did any more. These two came out just great. I am also quite pleased with the gessoed and painted background on the bottom page - I was trying to do something that looked sort of old like patinaed brass. I used the painted and sprayed silhouettes from yesterday's pages on the top page along with a poem I have had laying on my desk for a while. the cardboard is what I used to create texture on some of the other pages and then it just seemed to need the flowers and stitching. Dina Wakley is such a great teacher and I am really looking forward to the next 2 weeks of classes.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I am so loving my Art Journaling 102 class with Dina Wakely. I really should have taken 101 but unfortunately we have only so much money for frivolous pursuits. Anyway, today our lesson was on motifs - picking a motif and using it in many different ways - we were to use paints (acrylic and all I have are cheap mm and Michaels so they are way too thin) and spray inks (all I have is glimmer mist and it doesn't work very well with gesso as you can see in the middle photo; the top photo is glimmer mist sans gesso and it worked so much better!) This is great fun and I have to admit I am tired after painting and stamping most of the day. I am full of ideas right now but I think I need some energy - a pot of tea is steeping as I write.

Yesterday I got several great books at the used book store including a 1920 copy of the Blue Book to London - you should see the incredible maps and floorplans - oh such love! I was devouring the floorplans of the British Museum - how many books have I read where the characters go there. I also went to the library and on display were 2 young adult books that I checked out - the Tree Shepherd's Daughter and Into the Wildewood. I've already read the first one - a fun easy fantasy set in a permanent Renaissance festival site. What's really weird is that I recognized the site as one that we used to go to in Colorado; however, the author relocated it to Fort Collins and that bothered me a little as FC is not exactly in the foothills. Oh well, I just pictured it as I knew it (actually the site is Larkspur, between Denver and Colorado Springs) and it brought back memories of Brian who always insisted on wearing a brown hooded cape (he was a thief in D&D gaming) and who always had to eat one of the huge turkey drumsticks. Such fun!

Monday, February 23, 2009

My watercolor class this morning was great fun - working on palm trees which, of course, in Florida is a must. Since there are several varieties of palms and the fronds are quite different, we spent quite a while practicing different styles.When I got home, I decided to sign up for Dina Wakely's Art Journaling 102 on Debbie Hodge's Get it scrapped website. I have been debating this for a while - the wanting vs. the NOT BUYING IT pledge, and today I decided that I could scrounge the funds from another category and do it. (I know, rationalization!!!) I am super excited about the class and fortunately I have all the supplies except for the water soluble oil pastels (which Dina says you can get at Staples for less than $5). We will be using spray inks and I have some glimmer mist (although she really likes the Tim Holtz stuff so that's on my wishlist).I'm finishing up some layouts to submit to the Graphic45 DT call and some ATCs for 2 SIS swaps. Tomorrow morning I work at the bookstore and then I will go thrifting on my way home. I will post some pix tomorrow.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

We spent six months living in Trinidad on our sailboat and had the good fortune to experience Carnival up live and personal. We actually went to see the judging of king and queen, visited a pan band practice, visited a costumier and saw how the costumes were designed and made, attended a lecture at the art museum on the social and political meanings of the costumes (very important to the understanding of Trini history and culture). Our sailboat was moored just offshore in a protected bay in Chagaramas (the west end of the island which used to be a US naval base during WWII (actually one of my cousins was born there). On the land were several outdoor rock clubs and the Saturday night before Carnival was Insomnia 2000 where they played all night. It was so loud our boat literally vibrated.

But Jouvay is the real beginning of Carnival - you get up at 4am Monday and go to downtown Port of Spain and wander around watching bands of people march through the streets - some are painted all over like the Blue Devils and others wear trashy, funky costumes. Still others carry buckets of wet mud and they throw it at you - did I mention you should wear old clothes? Then you come home, clean up, and go back downtown to listen to the pan band competitions. Then on Tuesday you go downtown to watch the parades of costumed bands marching and dancing. Then you literally go into a coma - Trinidad pretty much shuts down for 3 days during that time.

Every year I do a little decorating for Mardis Gras/Carnival as you can see by the pix. The green bear is Erin, whom I purchased while we were living in the camper/trailer after the hurricanes. Our beloved cat Sam had passed soon after the second hurricane (17 years old and the vet said the stress of 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks just literally killed him) so I got Erin for our pet while we lived in the trailer. Erin gets decorated for holidays and he still has a place of honor in our living room even now. Hana, our current live fur companion, just ignores him.

I did three layouts yesterday and will probably do another posting later. I also plan to go see Slumdog Millionaire today.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Layout inspired by the TAIF prompt for Lace. The laces on the far left and the bottom are vintage laces that I found in an old yellowed envelope in my grandmother's lingerie drawer after she passed some years ago. So beautiful! I handcut the swans after seeing some on a layout on the Scrapologie blog - great blog and the music is awesome! I am still trying to do the NOT BUYING IT thing and I had already started this layout before I got the mail yesterday. This patterned paper is some old Sandylion paper and the ribbons are leftovers from the ATCs I made for the Jan year of color swap. I will be mailing those and the Feb ones off probably on Mon so then I will post them then.

Friday, February 20, 2009

This morning I went to a local quilt show with some friends - I always like to see what people are making, and check out the vendors. The show was smaller than usual (not good) but there were a lot of people attending (good). I saw a few quilts that I loved and some others that I could appreciate the work spent on them and some others that, well, best nothing said. I bought one fat quarter - I coveted the Amy Butler fabrics but at $10/yard, they were out of my league. Just as I got home, the mailman had stopped in front of our house - he had a priority mail package for me. Do I love getting packages?!? the answer is obviously yes!!

Some time back - the beginning of January - I won a challenge on the Inspired by Amelie blog and was told I would receive something. Nothing happened so I emailed them. They said they would look into it. Nothing happened. So on Wednesday this week I emailed the company that had been advertised as sponsoring the challenge and asked them very politely about it. Within a short time, I received an email from them, and then another, and then another. They contacted the Amelie people, apologized to me saying they had never gotten the info (obviously just an email problem), and mailed me the prize plus some extras that afternoon. Today I received the package(see photo) and it was awesome - very different things than I would have purchased but that's good as it will force me to work outside my comfort zone - and the really weird thing is that the fat quarter I purchased (in the second photo) looks like it belongs with the kit. Go figure. The company is Createmykeepsake and I am super impressed by their response. I am super excited by what I received and my little pink cells are bubbling with ideas.

Last night I read a really funky book that was recommended by Amy Karol of angrychicken blog fame - the Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. It's a young adult book but very sarcastic and funny - a quick and enjoyable read. I have been reading a series of Australian murder mysteries set in the 1920s by Kerry Greenwood. They were recommended to me at the bookstore so I got one at the library and liked it. I then checked the website to get the correct order and got the first one on cd at the library. I listened to it while I was working on a quilting project - a big batik tote bag. I will be starting on the second in the series tonight. They are quick and easy reads but very humorous.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Happy Tuesday - I thought I'd blog for a few minutes before I go to the book store to work and hopefully find some treasures. I made this layout as one of mine to submit for the Bad Girls DT call but obviously I didn't win. I recognized some of the names of the winners and really congratulate them. I know the competition was steep and they were the cream of the crop. Looking forward to seeing their layouts.

This was a fun layout - I had cut the purse out of an old Dwell magazine and did a little research on Andy Warhol (I had a hard time believing he did this drawing but it was an early piece). Once I decided to use the Bob Fosse lyrics, the whole thing just came together. I had seen cupcakes on other people's layouts but, in my NOT BUYING IT mode, I made my own from cardboard, felt, and brads.The sequin waste came from some items that I won from SATU from Crop Suey. After the layout was not picked for Bad Girls, I added the journaling on the cupcake base - enjoy the party, have FUN and submitted it to SIS and OLW. I have to admit the layout just makes me happy.

Last night I got a little crazy (or so Dan said) with puns about gnomes. I am working on a quickie layout fot Inspired by Amelie. The challenge this time is create a layout with the gnome so I had painted a small mountain landscape for my watercolor class and I thought about putting the gnome in the front and titling it Gnome, gnome on the range, and then I started thinking about There's no place like gnome and Phone gnome, and, well, you get the picture.

Off to eat some breakfast. Have a great day!

By the way, I changed my user name on Scrapinstyletv to ChrisA (old name was kalaiton).

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Over on the Work your Soul blog, Kara came up with an awesome word: flocculencewhich means soft/light/fluffy/milky/opaque/comforting/pale/sleepy/delicate

so I thought of this shawl that I knitted the winter after the hurricanes - the winter when we lived in a tiny trailer barely more than a camper parked beside our house while it was being gutted and redone. I knitted a lot that winter as it was impossible to do anything that took up much space and the trailer was so cold. After dinner in the evenings, I would curl up on the bed and knit - this fabulous shawl was from a Suss pattern (originally from a scarf kit that came with various soft blue yarns) that I altered. I made it quite a bit larger and used creamy, soft, fluffy, and textured yarns for it. Even now it feels so cuddly to pull around my shoulders. this morning I laid it across 2 pillows and photographed it from all angles - suddenly it became this incredible landscape: mountains, valleys, tall grasses. thanks Kara for the inspiration!

I made the heart pin from vintage buttons and it just seems to compliment the shawl.

A busy 12th - sunny day, nice and warm, grocery shopping, thrifting at Goodwill, painting, azaleas from the yard, the last of the fresh local red grapefruits, and the Valentine decorations. We also went out to eat at Carabba's but no pics of that.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Good morning - it's very foggy here in Florida but in the 60s. I made cinnamon rolls this morning (half of my bread recipe - the other half is a fresh loaf of bread - smells so good!). I told Dan, who gave me a beautiful card, that he didn't need to eat any as I didn't want to subject him to the rolls in case they weren't any good, and he responded that he would sacrifice himself. LOL! By the way, they are AWESOME! I used my bread recipe but then I used the icing from http://theblackapple.typepad.com/inside_a_black_apple/. So yummy! (And don't you just love her Milkland paintings - if only I had some extra cash?! I can dream.)

I signed up for an ATC swap through the Year of Color blog - I'm excited. My brain is whizzing with ideas - somehow I want to incorporate some images of my vintage postcard collection onto the ATCs but I also want to paint so ... the little pink cells are bubbling.

Friday, February 13, 2009

the TAIF prompt this week is WISH so here's my layout - 3 wishes. And the book is one of my finds this week at the used book store - so apropos! I collect children's books from the 50s, 60s, and 70s -this one is from 1971.Last night we went to dinner at Carabba's - yum yum! Not as busy as usual but still a 20 minute wait. I had the Mezzaluna and of course, Dan had the mussels. We are having very warm weather so we actually sat outside to wait. It was a truly lovely evening!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I did this canvas in Wilna's class. I love how she gave us basic ideas but of course, you move on from there to put your own stamp on the project. this is my first ever acrylic painting on canvas and it was great fun. I bought some plate hangers and plan to hang this in our bedroom as well as the heart in the white shadow box. I like to do our bedroom in whites for summer and these will work perfectly with the soft color scheme. The dictionary pages in the painting are l - love and m - marriage. After this postitive introduction to acrylic painting, I definitely will do more.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Azaleas from my yard and a heart tablerunner brighten my table. I made this tablerunner 7 years ago, just after we had returned to the US. Today I went down to Jensen Beach with a friend and we had a great day - supplies at Michaels and a quilt shop, magazines at B&N, and lunch. Tomorrow I hope to paint all day.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

As you can see, I really scored at the St Vincent de Paul thrift store and the used book store. Don't you just love the paper lanterns (50 cents) and the awesome patterns (10 cents each). Can you believe the Vogue Edith Head one and the Advance oriental dress one? Love, love, love.

The books are a wild combination: the Dixie-land book is from 1932 and is set in 1850 Kentucky and Abraham Lincoln is a character. The Lost Horizon book is from 1939. I just had to have the Yugoslavia book and the short stories by Beryl Markham (I loved West with the Night and never knew she wrote short stories). The FunFare book is from 1949 and has lots of humorous stories and cartoons, and the Book of Wishes and Wishmaking will go into my collection of children's books from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I also picked up an old children's book to destroy - I mean alter - for Wilna's class.This pile is some art books and newer paperbacks (50 cents each) - Blood and Chocolate (the movie version I just saw on Showtime) and I've been wanting to read Melissa de la Cruz. I got 2 books on watercolor and a book on collage, and the Harry Potter is a UK version. More love!

"And now for something complerely different." Is this not a cool building? It is the back of a restaurant called The Patio here in Vero. If you could see the side of the restaurant, you would understand the name as the whole street side is an outdoor eating area. I have never eaten there and it was closed for quite a while this year, but now it is open under new management. I love the wood and all the metal accents, and, of course, the red doors. I'm trying to think how to use this photo in a layout.

Tomorrow I am going with a friend down to Jensen Beach to the Barnes & Noble, Michael's, and a quilt shop. I'm looking forward to B&N; I have a giftcard and a coupon.

Monday, February 9, 2009

I did this layout for a ScrapMojo prompt - to be inspired by the Cirque du Soleil website. The images are so incredible - the colors, the characters, the stories. I would love to see a Cirque du Soleil show - ah ha! to be put on my short list - Cirque du Soleil is in Orlando. I will plan a trip up there and make reservations for Cirque and a hotel.

This layout is inspired by KOOZA which is playing in Atlanta and is of Carnival when we were living in Trinidad in 2000. The most popular song that year was "so I woke up this morning and just realized Carnival come back again". The photo with the sailboats is where we were - on one of the sailboats just across from the land from where an outdoor rock club was located. The music would last all night and was so LOUD that the bulkheads on our boat would vibrate - needless to say, we could not sleep on the nights just before Carnival. We visited the shops where the costumes were made, we visited the bars where the pan bands practiced, and we actually went to lectures at the musem where they explained the political and social significance of Carnival in the history of Trinidad - totally fascinating! Then on Jouvay (4am on Sunday) we went downtown to watch the crazy parades where people throw mud at each other and on Mardis Gras we went to watch the parades and festivities. Truly an incredible and memorable experience!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

This is a wall hanging I finished yesterday; it was inspired by Wilna's he{art} class. Her project is an Ikea 12 x 12 shadowbox with a feathered heart in the the center. The heart is hollow in the back and has a light in it. I loved the idea but in the spirit of not buying it, I looked through my supply closet and came up with an 8 x 8 Making memories shadow box (a Christmas kit purchased at Tuesday Morning (19.99 orig, 4.99 at TM) last fall, a heart cookie cutter that I covered with paper and tissue and surrounded with some marabou feathers (you should have seen the feathers floating around the room; Hana(my cat) was crazed - her eyes were gigantic as she watched the feathers dancing). All this time I'm thinking of the Emily Dickinson line, "hope is the thing with feathers" so instead of love like Wilna's, my piece is about hope. I took the little metal hope charm off an old layout that I wasn't fond of, added the heart earring that I found somewhere, and the words "the thing with feathers". The background is a download from Wilna. Since I like to do our bedroom in white in the summer, I will hang it in our bedroom. I also finished the painting for the class but it needs some tweeking - it also will go in our bedroom. I am so fortunate to win admission to this class - I love it. Wilna is so inspirational - the projects, the instructions, the videos, the music.

Dan is golfing this morning so I need to get lots done - laundry, house cleaning, watch No Reservations (from the library). this afternoon I will tweak the painting and make the Valentine cards. I also hope to do some watercolor flowers and maybe work on some submissions for the Scrapmojo DT and the Ad this DT. Oh, and don't forget fixing dinner and some time to eat 3 meals and clean up the kitchen, and read my favorite blogs and maybe a walk - no way are there enough hours in the day!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

I did this layout today for the SIS free shopping challenge - basically someone lists 10 items and then you pick 3 and add 3 different items to the list for the next person to select. then you make a layout using those items - my items were to make a paper house (the grass hut), no real photos (this pic came from an old magazine, I copied it and then wiped part of it away with a baby wipe and then added some painting), and 3 patterned papers (I used 6 pp). We have some great memories in Grenada - this little shack was on a little sandbar that you had to use a dinghy to get to and every Sunday afternoon we would go there and drink Carib beer and eat chicken, mac & cheese, and rice & beans (cheap enough for cruisers). So much fun, but now it's gone - they tore it down and built an exclusive resort.

I have also been catching up on the projects from Wilna's he{art} class and will show some pics tomorrow. I was determined not to spend any money so my projects are a bit different, and that's a good thing!

I did go shopping today - the Joann's in the next town south of us (we have no fabric stores at all) is closing so everything is on sale. I bought some paints, brushes, papers, charms, and silicone spatulas (strange to find them at Joann's?!). I then went to their Big Lots and found some cool foof a la and making memories scrapping stuff and some Starbuck's truffles. Yeah!

Friday, February 6, 2009

I did this layout yesterday for both the Creative Type (retro) challenge and the Category Stories (what I love about) challenge. (By the way I will be a guest designer for Category Stories in June this year). I got the idea from a Pier 1 catalog that came in the mail this week. It made me think about our trip last year to NASA and voila! the layout just made itself. I drew the spaceship, found some cool retro fonts, and cut out elements from the little catalog. I am currently finishing layouts for SATU and Bad Girls, and trying to keep up with the Wilna class and the Year of Color blog. I will post some of these layouts and projects either later today or tomorrow. This afternoon I am going to a retirement party for someone I used to work with. I made her a 5 x 7 framed layout (but I forgot to photograph it before I wrapped it) of a photo I took several years ago of her at her desk - she was so engrossed in her computer that she didn't even realize I took the shot. I really hope it surprises her.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I did two versions of Wilna's project for day 1 of the he{art} class (to which I won the admission). The first which I will show maybe tomorrow is the classic Christmas red Starbucks cup with valentiny inserts. This one is the second and is entitled Feast of Love (I had a book marker with the movie title and blurbs which I used). I used a white Starbucks cup and the inserts are favorite sweets recipes including Coeur a la creme. I printed the recipes on one side of the cards and put photos on the other side along with embellishments, especially the Valentine tickets that you can get for free on the new House of Three website. I am so loving all the great resources that are out there on the web for free - I am totally into the Not Buying It mode and am using lots of recycled items (like Starbucks cups and cupholders) and freebies in my layouts.

I am off to check out my favorite blogs and finish my he{art} project for today.

for the OLW challenge "living"for the Noel Mignon challengeI have been super busy working on some challenge and DT submissions this past week. I won a place in Wilna's heart class on SIS and I am loving this - I did 2 projects based on Lesson 1 and I am busily painting the hearts for the cards for today's project. I love so much inspiration!!